Still grappling with the lingering effects of a worldwide pandemic while looking straight up at the face of a daunting demographic cliff, higher education enrollment is dealing with major challenges. It doesn’t help that some experts feel the $15 billion college recruitment market is unsustainable and experiencing what economists call, the “Law of Diminishing Returns.”
dimin’ishing returns’, n. 1. any rate of profit, production, benefits, etc. that beyond a certain point fails to increase proportionately with added investment, effort, or skill. [Webster’s College Dictionary]
Since 2011, both two-year and four-year non-profit institutions have increased overall advertising budgets by nearly 50 percent. This increase has coincided with a nearly 17 percent drop in traditional college enrollment. These returns illustrate how the concept of “spend more money and get more students” is outdated, out-of-touch and clearly ineffective.
Watch Capture’s video, “Beat the Law of Diminishing Returns in Higher Education Recruitment,” to learn what your university can do.
Video by Brandon Jones, Capture Higher Ed
